Consumer trust index in Russia collapsed to a minimum in 12 years

The Nielsen consumer confidence index in Russia in the fourth quarter of 2016 amounted to 63 points. This was reported in the NIELSEN press release, which was received by Republic on January 31.

As a result, the index returned to the value of the first quarter of last year and was at a minimum for all 12 years of observation. In addition, the indicator interrupted the tendency to growth in the second and third quarters.

According to the Nielsen survey, 84% of respondents in Russia believe that now it is not the best time to make purchases (the share of the survey of the survey over the year has been adhering to such an opinion by 11 percentage points). At the same time, the share of Russians awaiting that the country will get out of the crisis in the next year, fell to a minimum in two years - up to 8%.

“The year 2016 was a difficult test for Russian consumers, which forced to make significant adjustments to their behavior and change the shopping habits. The consumption model was finally transformed into the savings model. Savings in everything became part of the lifestyle, and even some improvement in the economic situation by the end of 2016 does not stimulate activity in relation to expenses, ”Nielsen emphasized.

The value of the index above 100 points indicates that optimists prevail in the country, below 100 points - indicates the predominance of pessimists, and the value of 100 points shows the balance between optimistic and pessimistic expectations from the future. The study by Nielsen affected more than 30 thousand online consumers from 63 countries of the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America in December 2016.

On January 30, the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration of the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA) published monthly monitoring of the socio-economic situation and well-being of the population, which said that the crisis in the Russian Federation to one degree or another affected 78% of the country's population. In the materials of the RANEPA, it was noted that the number of optimists who believe that crisis phenomena will not last long, over the past year decreased by more than doubled.

“The reduction in expenses for goods and services has become the main form of adaptation of the Russian population to crisis phenomena in the economy. To the greatest extent, this form of adaptation is characteristic of the poor population, among which 92% are included in the rigid regime of savings, however, the average and relatively wealthy layers also demonstrate the reduction of consumption, ”said the experts of the RANEPA.